The science of chance

I am walking, in my normal jaunty fashion, from the train station to home, looking forward to uncorking dinner, listening to 'a history of the world in 100 objects' on my iPod. The episode I am listening to is about a golden statue of a goddess, from Sri Lanka.

It's pretty racy stuff. The goddess is described as a two thirds life size female figure, with an hourglass figure, wearing a sarong on her lower half and topless with 'perfect' breasts. Rather than an object of titillation, she's an object of veneration, the narrator explains.

And just as he's describing her, I mean to the very second, I walk past the window of just about the only clothes shop in the village and the mannequin in the window is wearing a skirt but has her top half exposed.

Why? I'm not sure. I assume that the window dresser is back of shop, looking out a new top (it's way after closing time and, as odd as this may sound, seeing a topless mannequin makes me somewhat embarrassed for the plastic woman I the window.
Has she been forgotten, has the window dresser left in a rush or, god help us, is the shop trying to be controversial or trying to really hit that giggling schoolboy demographic? The mannequin stands in a typical cocktail party pose, glass in one hand, the other hand on hip, wearing a long skirt. Her head is cocked as if half listening to somebody enthusing about Star Trek while looking for somebody more interesting and better looking to talk to - it's a pose I recognise - and totally unselfconsciously unaware that she's topless. At a party it's bloke's dilemma number eight; at what point do you tell a woman you are talking to that she is experiencing catastrophic blouse failure (answer - you don't, there is no way that woman is ever, ever going to speak to you again, the atmosphere simply cannot cope with the heat generated by frequent meetings of somebody that embarrassed; so you just have to stand there trying desperately to think of a tactful way of explaining that you're catching an eyeful while simmering in the social hell that you've already delayed too long and she'll think that you're some sort of leering pervert. If you must, the correct way to deal with this is to mention the situation as early as possible in the conversation and do so by commenting either on her tattoo or lack of. Simple.).

What are the chances of that happening?

There are two explanations. The first is that the probability of seeing something related to something I am listening to is actually quite high. '100 objects' is my podcast of choice for my walk home and as my route takes me past a number of shops, and in particular charity shops, it's reasonable that in a podcast about artefacts I'd be walking past something that bears a resemblance to the object being described.

The alternative is that, along with all the other laws and rules that govern the smooth running of the universe, from the way electrons orbit atoms to the way that steam wafts from the open window of a burger van on a cold winter's match day, there's room for a set of rules governing the lives of individuals and the universe ordered the events that led to the circumstance we call 'coincidence'.
And don't worry, that doesn't mean that everything is predetermined - quite the reverse - it means we may possibly have been missing stuff that's been organised for us, like a bloke who nips out for a fag at a stag do and misses the stripper. Everything from missing out on meeting someone significant because you went to the doughnut shack rather than the cafe for breakfast, all the way to missing being centre stage in a natural disaster because you decided not to visit a small Pacific island during asteroid strike season.